Lanka issue: Speaker calls all-party meet
New Delhi, Mar 20 : Amid growing pressure on the United Progressive Allaince (UPA) government, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar on Wednesday called an all-party meeting on the Sri Lanka issue in an attempt to end the parliament logjam over the matter.
The meeting is likely to start at around 7:30 pm.
Earlier in the day, the government said it would move an amendment to the draft resolution on Sri Lanka at the United Nations Human Rights Council.
"On the issue of a Resolution to be adopted by Parliament, my colleague the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Shri Kamal Nath, began consultations yesterday with the political parties. Opinion on the matter is divided. The consultations are continuing and it may be possible to reach a conclusion only later today," said Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram.
"As far as the Government is concerned, our position is that we intend to move amendments to the draft Resolution before the UNHRC. We will also continue to consult political parties on bringing a Resolution to be adopted by Parliament," he said.
He said India's permanent representative to the UNHRC is here from consultation and he would be given suitable instructions.
He said it is a canard that India is working with USA to dilute the resolution against Sri Lanka at the UNHRC.
The ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA)'s southern ally DMK on Tuesday pulled out of the government in New Delhi over its "soft stand" on the atrocities on Sri Lanka's ethnic Tamils vis-a-vis a US-sponsored resolution at the UNHRC session at Geneva, dealing a body blow to the main constituent Congress party led coalition.
The DMK wanted India to go for a strongly worded resolution against Sri Lanka for its atrocities and killings of ethnic Tamils in Sri Lanka that followed after the civil war in that country ended with the defeat of the LTTE.
"Sri Lanka has committed serious crimes and the DMK has always condemned these crimes, " DMK chief Karunanidhi had said, whose party wanted India to incorporate words like "war crimes" and "genocide" in the UNHRC resolution sponsored by the USA which will go for voting end of this month.